A bar called Maclaren's
by tiamat100
Summary: Robin takes Starfire to Gotham, only for Batman to refuse to let her patrol with them. Instead, Star decides to explore the city alone and ends up in a bar called Maclaren's where a man called Barney buys her a drink. Oneshot. Contains underage drinking. Set a few years after the cartoon.


_A/N- I know HIMYM is set in New York, but depending on the canon Gotham is sometimes meant to be New York. I didn't think it was too much of a stretch to move the HIMYM gang to Gotham instead. _

Star stumbled into the bar. She was dressed in a casual outfit, jeans and a purple halter top.

She had absolutely no idea where she was. She'd thought she'd be able to find her way around Gotham alone, but it was a lot harder than she'd expected. She wished she'd agreed to go on patrol with Robin instead, but Batman had looked at her like she was intruder so she'd decided that, for the sake of maintaining harmony, she'd explore Gotham on her own as a civilian instead. Her hair was the same flaming red, but she was wearing contacts that made her eyes look more human, and she'd stuck on some fake eyebrows Bumblebee had made her get so they could have a girl's night out in Steel City.

She'd sworn that she could take care of herself alone in the city for just one night, and instead she'd ended up in some smoky bar called Maclaren's, wishing she knew how to make the Batman accept her as a part of Robin's life. For better or for worse.

Her eyes began to burn, and she hurriedly forced her fire back. Unfortunately, she couldn't seem to hold back her eye beams and her tears at the same time. She sat down at a seat at the bar, not noticing the stares her exotic and beautiful looks were getting. The bartender moved to her with a smile.

"Want something to drink, sweetheart?"

A man sat down beside her, passing a wad of cash to the bartender. "It's on me." He turned to a shocked Starfire.

"Hey." He winked. "I'm Barney. And you are beautiful. What's your poison?"

Star wrinkled her brow, looking around in confusion for any clue as to what he meant. Was this some human idiom? She smiled a little uncomfortably.

"Poison? I do not understand."

If it was possible, his grin widened.

"What you'd like to drink. What's your name?"

She hesitated just a second. "Star. My name is Star. And ...I believe I will "have what you're having"."

She took the drink the bartender offered a moment or two later and drank it down, frowning. It tasted...different. She'd known better than to order mustard, knowing that it wasn't normally considered a beverage, and she'd been expecting one of those sickly sweet drinks they always had around the tower. This drink wasn't as sweet as she'd expected. It was almost sour.

She downed it in one. Wandering around the city all night had left her thirsty. She smiled at Barney, who seemed a little surprised. He gestured at the bartender and another drink was placed in front of her. This one she curled her hands around, planning to sip it.

A tall woman came over.

"Hey, Barney, how's your date?"

Star choked on her drink. Flustered, her english became more confused.

"Oh, no! Is that what you intended? I am full of the apologies! I did not intend for this to be what you thought, I am… I already am having a boyfriend!"

She put her drink down and flushed with realisation. "Is that the reason you paid for my beverage? Oh, I am full of apologies! I shall pay, I have enough of the money-" She reached into her pocket and paled. She checked her other pocket.

The tall woman smiled. "It's okay, Barney was probably just too subtle for you to notice. Where are you from?"

Star didn't hear, too busy searching her pockets. Then she hid her face in her hands. "Oh, no. X'hal."

Robin frowned. "You lost your wallet or something?"

Half an hour later she was sitting, finishing off her third drink, and explaining to everyone what had happened.

"And Robin's father does not like me, and he did not wish for me to be there. Robin attempted to convince me that I should remain but I did not wish to cause problems and so I decided I would explore the city but now my money is gone and I cannot pay you back for these drinks and I do not even know where Robin lives because his father would not let me travel to their home with them!" She finished in an angry rush, swallowing her last mouthful. Lily wordlessly passed her the mostly untouched glass she had in front of her.

"Here, I think you need this more than I do."

"I thank you." She took a gulp. "What is it? It is not sweet like most beverages and I do not believe I have had it before. Perhaps I shall ask Robin to purchase some for my day of birth." She paused, staring at the glass.

"Oh? How old will you be?" Marshall asked.

"I shall be..." She paused, calculating. "twenty."

Every one of them simultaneously blanched.

"T-twenty?" Marshall said. Barney's eyes were practically popping out of his head.

She nodded. "Yes- please, is there a problem?"

Ted stood up. "You bet there's a problem! You could have mentioned you were-" He suddenly realised how loudly he was speaking and ducked back to the table, finishing in a whisper "Underage!"

She frowned. "Underage? I do not understand. That means to be a child, yes? By my people's standards, I am considered an adult."

Marshall, the lawyer of the group, took it upon himself to explain.

"Yes, but here in the U.S.A, people under the age of 21 are not allowed to buy alcohol. It's illegal to purchase it for them. I think we all just assumed you were older."

"Alcohol *hic*?" She giggled, and to everyone's surprise a shot of green light came from her eyes. "This is the alcohol? Robin does not normally allow me to drink this, although my friend Cyborg has tried." She laughed.

All of them were staring at her. "Uhh... Star...you're-"

"Drunk." Came a voice, sounding very unimpressed. The bar went silent as they realised who was standing by their table. Starfire, however, was not.

"Robin!" She squealed, propelling herself into his arms. "It is glorious to see you!"

Suddenly, the group realised exactly who it was they had been drinking with. Who they had technically broken the law in the company with. Who it was they had managed to get drunk.

" You're Starfire?" Robin Scherbatsky eyes widened. "Of course! I can't believe I didn't recognise you!"

The other Robin glared, or at least tried to through his armful of happy Starfire. "You do realise she's under twenty-one?"

"She didn't tell us!" Barney blurted. "She looked older-"

"Robin." She pulled herself out of his arms, floating just above the ground. "Please do not be angry. they did not realise that I should not be drinking, and I did not do the realising that I was drinking alcohol." She smiled. "In truth, they have been very kind to me. Much as you always have been."

Robin's eyes narrowed as he remembered how she'd reacted to his "kindness" when they'd met.

Robin Scherbatsky smiled cautiously. "She'd lost her purse and was all alone, so we invited her to sit with us and bought her a drink. I promise you that we didn't know she was underage."

"Oh, friends!" Starfire said, suddenly stricken. "I did not mean to do the deceiving of you!"

Robin took Starfire's hand, holding it tightly as he glared at Barney in particular. "Fine. Thank you." He said through gritted teeth. "Star? Ready to go?"

"One moment." She took the hands in turn of each member of the table, smiling her thanks. Then she reached Barney. Hesitating, she whispered something in his ear. Robin tensed, while all the others looked curiously as Barney did his best to keep an impassive face.

"Goodbye, friends! It was glorious to meet you!" She said, waving as she headed off with Robin. They all smiled back, half in shock

"...Whoa." Ted said. "We just had drinks with Starfire. Of the Teen Titans. Oh my-"

"So what did she say to you?" Lily interrupted, looking at Barney. He avoided her eyes.

"Just thanks for the drinks." Not looking at any of them, he excused himself, trying not to think about what she'd really said.

Outside, as they climbed onto the R-cycle, Robin said "Uh, Star...What did you say to him? He seemed pretty surprised."

She smiled. "Oh, you did not get introduced. The taller woman, her name is also Robin. He pretends he is not, but he is in love with her. So I said," She giggled. "I said "You say Robin in the same way that I do. Do not let your Robin slip away. I promise you that she looks at you as Robin looks at me."

Robin smiled, relieved. "Cool. So, I talked B round. You ready to go home?"

She smiled, tightening her grip around his waist as the cycle roared down the road.

"Of course I am."

_A/N- This isn't the best quality, but I just wanted to have a little fun with the idea of Barney chatting Star up in a bar. Useless fact: I almost didn't put the underage drinking gag in, because where i'm from the legal drinking age is 18, but I thought it'd be funny. Disclaimer: I don't own HIMYM or Teen Titans. _


End file.
